


Travelin' Soldier

by orphan_account



Category: Guardians of Childhood - William Joyce
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-23
Updated: 2018-06-23
Packaged: 2019-05-27 03:56:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15016154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: A fic inspired by Traveling Soldier by The Dixie Chicks.Your family would finally be safe to grow, and live their lives freely if we can pull this off.” The young Captain, exclaims in an excited frenzy.  Irvin calms some, upon seeing the Generals pained expression. “I’m sorry, General. That was out of line.”Kozmotis heaves a sigh. “No.” He says, decisive.“Gather the men. We will draw the Shadows in with the lure of children’s laughter. We have a week to prepare, and then we move. This war has gone on much too long.”





	Travelin' Soldier

**Author's Note:**

> Not beta'd cut me some slack. I didn't really intend for this to go in the direction it did, but I kind like it. Based off the books by William Joyce, you know so, back when Bunny was kinda loopy but it's okay I still like the grumpy 'roo.
> 
> Comment are love lol

** Travelin’ Soldier - The Dixie Chicks **

Two days past eighteen

He was waiting for the bus in his army green

Sat down in a booth in a cafe there

Gave his order to a girl with a bow in her hair

He's a little shy so she gives him a smile

And he said, "Would you mind sittin' down for a while

And talking to me?

I'm feeling a little low."

She said, "I'm off in an hour and I know where we can go."

 

So they went down and they sat on the pier

He said I bet you got a boyfriend but I don't care

I got no one to send a letter to

Would you mind if I sent one back here to you

 

[Chorus:]

I cried

Never gonna hold the hand of another guy

Too young for him they told her

Waitin' for the love of a travelin' soldier

Our love will never end

Waitin' for the soldier to come back again

Never more to be alone when the letter said

A soldier's coming home

 

So the letters came from an army camp

In California then Vietnam

And he told her of his heart

It might be love and all of the things he was so scared of

He said, "When it's getting kinda rough over here,

I think of that day sittin' down at the pier.

And I close my eyes and see your pretty smile.

Don't worry but I won't be able to write for a while."

 

[Chorus]

 

One Friday night at a football game

The Lord's Prayer said and the Anthem sang

A man said, "Folks would you bow your heads

For a list of local Vietnam dead."

Crying all alone under the stands

Was a piccolo player in the marching band

And one name read but nobody really cared

But a pretty little girl with a bow in her hair

 

 

I cried

Never gonna hold the hand of another guy

Too young for him they told her

Waitin' for the love of a travelin' soldier

Our love will never end

Waitin' for the soldier to come back again

Never more to be alone when the letter said

A soldier's coming home

 

**_ Listen to song: _ **

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C0QS3IDyP8>

** Traveling Soldier: _Chapter 1_ **

_They were running late, his squadron. They were docking to restock supplies on a ridiculously small planet, the kind with small cafes where everyone knows your name. A brief reprieve from the war against the shadows._

_He strode purposefully off the ship in a dignified manner, barking orders to his soldiers as he goes. He was only five minutes behind, but that was five minutes he’d promised to spend with her. The golden chain around his neck seemed to pulse, as though reminding him that soon he’d see her, hold her. He could remind himself that she was safe._

_The little bell above the door rang as he stepped into the small Diner, all linoleum floors and torn, gaudy booths.  His Eyes scan the heads of the rooms occupants, searching frantically. For all he looked the imposing General of the Golden Army. He can’t see her, where is she? Is it possible that the shadows got to her? No, he-_

_“Daddy!”_

_And suddenly his world came together again, as seamlessly as though it hadn’t shattered in that one tiny moment of all-encompassing fear. There were very few things that were capable of scaring General Kozmotis Pitchiner, but this, the fear of losing his daughter, his living light - was at the top of the list. He lets a fond smile grace his face as he looks down at the angelic face beaming back at him._

_“Seraphina.” Long fingers, brush stray strands of midnight hair back behind her ears, noting the golden ribbon tying back her unruly mane._

_Small hands grip at his long cloak, pulling him closer, seemingly trying to burrow into his chest. “Your letter said you would be here at eleven o’clock sharp.” Watery green eyes turn upwards, glaring accusingly. “You’re late.”_

_“I know darling, I’m sorry for worrying you.” His heart clenches painfully at the sight of her tears. Seraphina was a smart girl, very intuitive for one her age. She would have made the very reasonable deduction that something had happened when he didn’t show up when he’d promised. “It’s nothing too troubling, just a foolish Private deciding to attempt contact with a group of fearlings.”_

_A derisive snort that all too often escaped his own person sounded from the little girl in his arms. “By the Light, why would anyone do something so stupid?”_

_He gently steered Sera into a nearby booth, the fondness for the child so undeniably his nearly overwhelming in its capacity. “Well Sera, not everyone can be quite so logical as you, and though I would appreciate it if my men could be even half as intelligent as you are dearest, I must simply try to train the imbeciles as they’re given to me.”_

_By now Seraphina had begun doing a small simple word search on her placemat, and nods somberly while dividing her attention the best a nine-year-old can. “It must be exhausting to deal with idiots like that all the time. It’s no wonder you’re always so tired on your visits.” It seems her tears were all but forgotten._

_For now._

_A bitter ache fills Kozmotis as he remembers why he’d had Sera meet him at the Café instead of their home. “Seraphina.”_

_Shining emeralds meet molten gold, giving him their momentarily undivided attention._

_“Do you remember what I wrote in my letter?”_

_Tiny brows drew together in confusion. “You told me about your visit… and you also said that you think we are very close to defeating the shadows.” What was he trying to get at?_

_“You know that, to defeat the shadows, my troops and I have to spend as much time on the field as possible.” A nod. “Well, it’s for that reason, that I cannot stay long this visit Sweetling. My ship sails again at sundown.”_

_Seraphina frowned for only a moment, before a small smile graced her angelic features. “That’s alright Father. Once you destroy the shadows you get to come home, and then you can teach me my lessons instead of my tutors.”_

_And that fondness was back, filling his chest with the same love that fueled the golden light that he only hours ago used to destroy a small group of shadow creatures. A grin broke across his face when he saw the waitress approach their table._

_“Eva.” He greets, teasingly. “Getting bored with being trapped in the safehouse are we?”_

_“Well, an overbearing husband of mine demanded I stay where the action’s quiet and he has convenient access to his daughter. Now who does that sound like to you?” She arches an elegant brow, pinning Kozmotis with a pointed look._

_“Well, my darling wife, I didn’t think it was such a crime to want to spend my precious few spare moments with my family.” He sniffs, listening to Seraphina’s stifled giggles. Eva huffs, annoyed, only to breakout in a radiant smile._

_“I missed you, my dear overbearing spouse.” She pecks his cheek, before extracting a notepad and pen from her apron. “Now, what can I get my two VIPs today?”_

_“Two vanilla milkshakes and the time your shift ends would be wonderful darling.”_

_“I’m off in an hour, and if you’re leaving tonight you better make this visit worth my time.” She smiles, disappearing back into the kitchen._

 

 

 

 

***

_Voices were heard arguing behind closed doors that night. General Pitchiner standing stoic and silent as his captain’s squabble over the best way to finish the shadows, once and for all._

_“The shadows forces have been all but eradicated, if we simply coral them into a prison of sorts-”_

_“And how do you propose we do that? They are shadows, fool! You cannot contain them!”_

_“What if we infused a cell with Light, like we do with our swords? They can’t touch it, and the Light might limit their ability to travel!”_

_That… was actually a good idea. Kozmotis raises a hand for silence, stepping away from his spot near the wall to begin his pacing. Plans and formulas whizzing around his mind with all the speed of sound.  “… Even if we could guarantee that this crazy scheme of yours would succeed, the Light would have to be renewed continuously. Someone would have to be left as guard.” He says slowly, throwing a glance over his shoulder to Captain Irvin. “The shadows would poison his mind, whoever we decide upon.”_

_“…What about you?” the young captain proposes, quiet as Kozmotis had ever heard him outside of a life or death situation._

_“Excuse me?”_

_“You’ve never been overly affected the shadows, you’re the only one of us who has never been incapacitated by shadow sickness. Your skill with the Light is undeniable!” Captain Irvin was smiling excitedly now, seemingly unaware- or simply unbothered- by the dark shadow overtaking the General’s features. “You stand the most chance out of all of us!”_

_“And what of my family?”_

_“Your family would finally be safe to grow, and live their lives freely if we can pull this off.” The young Captain, exclaims in an excited frenzy.  Irvin calms some, upon seeing the Generals pained expression._

_“I’m sorry, General. That was out of line.”_

_Kozmotis heaves a sigh. “No.” He says, decisive._

_“General?”_

_“Gather the men. We will draw the Shadows in with the lure of children’s laughter. We have a week to prepare, and then we move. This war has gone on much too long.”_

_“Yes sir.”_

_***_

_“Don’t you love me daddy?”_

_“Daddy, they’re hurting me!”_

_“Please! Help me!”_

_Kozmotis flinched as Seraphina’s agonized screams echoed off the walls of the prison. It felt as though it had been yearss since he’d began his vigil, though, he couldn’t be sure. The days all seem to run together. It hadn’t taken long for the shadows to switch tactics, ever learning, growing and evolving. They quickly switched from trying to convince him to let them out and switched to extorting his greatest fears._

_“DADDY!”_

_‘It’s not her. You know quite well that she is perfectly safe back home on Lune, Kozmotis.’ He rationalized. It was true, he himself had been the one to escort his family home, to carry his wife through the threshold of the estate like a pair of newlyweds.  The memory of her indignant face as he swept her off her feet was bittersweet. He knew he would never see them again._

_“We can help, General~”_

_Kozmotis stood straighter as the shadows switched tactics once more._

_“Just a breath of fresh air is all we ask, and we will help you see your daughter again~”_

_The shadows attempted to persuade the great Golden General. Offering promises of gold and vengeance, the life of his daughter._

_“You know~ the Tsarevich has had his eyes on Seeeraphina~”_

_Pitcheners blood ran cold, rage rocking though him without his consent. “What do you mean? Explain yourself!”_

_But the blasted shadows had finally decided to fall silent, the only noise a collective cackling hiss of breath._

_Sleep deprivation, lack of proper nourishment, or perhaps the constant attack on his psyche by the shadows, no one would ever know the reasoning for what usually cool and collected General did next._

_“How dare you! TELL me your meaning at once!” Kozmotis demands as he blasts his way through the many locks on the cell door. The cackling hiss swells in airy crescendo. The cell door swings open, and the galaxies fell silent for only a breath, before the shadows cackles rose to maniacal laughter, and they plunged into the Golden Generals heart. Dug roots in his soul._

_The great Golden general of the Lunanovan army, had fallen, and from the ashes rose the most terrifying being to ever roam the galaxies._

_The Nightmare King._

_***_

_A crazed laugh rises through the air as the nightmare king swoops over the palace, piloting the great nightmare galleon with speed and grace. Legions of Nightmare men and Fearlings swarm the palace at Pitch’s battle roar, blacking out the sun and leaching the colour from the world around them._

_“Come out, come out Georgian! Come out come out and play! Come and greet your old friend!” He taunts, jumping from the ship and plummeting to the ground, hitting the ground with an ear shattering boom, leaving a crater the size of a small satellite in his wake. Waves of living shadow part for their master, reaching out to touch him, stroking his shadow cloak reverently, curling over his armor, lapping at his boots._

_“Call them off Kozmotis! You know this isn’t right! You’ve destroyed entire constellations! This isn’t like you!”_

_And there he was, The Grand Tsar Lunanoff IX, wading through a sea of shadow, furious and marching towards the nightmare king, colour draining from his face and guards trailing after him, horrified._

_“Ah, it’s so good to see you Georgian It’s been too long!” Pitch swept into a low bow, cackling madly as he rose. “How I’ve looked forward to seeing you; broken and bleeding on the ground, that is.”_

_The guards were frantic, swiping at the shadows with illuminated swords and yelling desperately at their Tsar to get back._

_“Now now gentlemen,” Pitch soothes, flicking a hand distractedly towards the living shadows who’d climbed up the failing king, commanding them to tighten their grip, a savage grin spreading across his face at the wheezing crunch as they collapsed his ribcage. “I’m not going to kill him.” He tuts at the screaming soldiers.  “He’s much more useful to me alive.”  And with a snap of his boney fingers, the shadows are plunging into the Tsar. Through his eyes, through his nose and mouth, some even forcing their way in through bare flesh._

_The Tsars legendary sword, lay forgotten on cobbled streets._

_The guards were panicking now, horrified at the sight of their beloved king writhing in agony, muffled screams of terror escaping stuffed lips as flesh skin turned black and shriveled, eventually peeling and falling from his being in clumps and sheets, like some sort of sick butterfly emerging from its cocoon._

_And then, it stopped. Screams ceasing and replaced by a slow whistling wheeze. And the king stood. Golden armor now black and dented, looking aged a thousand years. The Grand Tsar Lunanoff, had become his own worst enemy. A nightmare man. No more than a pawn in Pitches army._

_“Fall back!” The foremost soldier bellowed, Irvin if his memory served. “Our duty falls now to the Tsarina and Tsarevich Lunanoff! We must get them to safety!”_

_Pitch let loose a terrifying laugh, swooping down past the palace guards and into the palace, blasting open the doors with all the force of a battering ram. “Oh so he’s here is he?!” He cackles. “How rude of me not to properly greet our young Tsarevich!”_

_Horns are blowing now, alarms blaring and guards scrambling as the most terrifying force the Golden Age has ever seen storms the palace._

_“Come out come out little prince!” He taunts, moving through the palace with supernatural speed grace and menace. Doors blast open, and windows shatter as The Nightmare King searches for the boy. He would tear the palace apart brick by brick to find the child – the boy who never knew fear._

_“Come now, Manny, I’m not going to hurt you…” He calls, with mock comfort as he turns the corner. And there he finds him. Curled up under the covers of his parent’s bed and shivering with his first taste of terror.  “I simply want to take you back to your parents…” He finishes on an exaggerated coo, the calm intonation a poor imitation of a voice he once used to comfort his daughter after a night terror._

_The thought renders him motionless, and the little prince peeks out from under the covers to see a war rage across the terrifying man’s face._

_Inside the Nightmare king was a battle of wills. Kozmotis had awakened, and was fighting the shadows within him with the last of his will. He yanked and pulled at the tar like shadows in his tattered soul to no avail._

_‘What’sssss the problem General???’ the shadows hissed in his mind. ‘ Have we not given you all that we promissssed?’_

_The general struggled harder against the tarry shadows that shadows the poured over his incorporeal form, cold and sticky and disgusting._

_‘This isn’t what I wanted, let me go! My Daughter needs me!’ He screams in his own mind. The shadows cackle an airy hiss._

_‘But your daughter doessssn’t need you anymore~’ they purr, ‘Sssshe hass her Prince to protect her now~’_

_And they opened his eyes, allowing the broken man within to see. The vision of the young boy melted away and was replaced by his by now teenaged daughter pulling the teenaged prince away, outmaneuvering the shadows and following after the glowing pest Nightlight towards the escape pods, away from him._

_Kozmotis’s will faltered._

_‘It can’t be.’ He chokes. ‘She’s just a child, she needs her father to-‘_

_The shadows laughed maniacally as the rage filtered in. Anger at the Tsar for keeping away from his daughter for all these years, at the Tsarevich Lunanoff for stealing away his most precious daughter. It opened his defenses just a crack, but a crack was all the shadows needed to regain their hold on him._

_This was the last time Kozmotis thought of his daughter for many centuries, the last time he thought of anything. The will of the golden general was finally broken._

_***_

_Shadow men swarmed the palace, overwhelming the panicked soldiers, halving legions and decimating the forces with uncharacteristic precision. Their new general was a wonderful tactician._

_“Seraphina come! We need to leave, now!” The spectral boy calls._

_Dainty hands work swiftly, fastening her short sword to her waist before joining Nightlight in fleeing their home. Manny fallowed numbly behind her eyes locked on the smoking palace behind them. She squeezed his hand reassuringly, but she knew in her heart, that things would never be the same again._

_The fountain in town square is obliterated, along with half the town, the scene just outside her front door was gruesome. The mutilated corpse of the baker, the form of the local seamstress impaled and sprawled. The faces of people she once knew drained of life and strewn across the streets. The coppery tang of blood fills her nose and clings to her tongue, making her retch._

_Seraphina had never encountered such an awful scene, and she would never forget it._

_As the moon clipper rose, and the ground fell away, the furious howl of the man she’d once called father rang through the grounds._

_Her hand pressed against the glass and tears fell freely from her eyes._

_“He’s not coming back is he?” she sniffled. Leaning back into Manny and trying desperately to stem the flow of tears. “He said he’d come home! He said he was coming home soon, the war was almost over!”_

_Manny looked sadly at his friend and wrapped a comforting arm around her shaking form._

_Big green eyes turned up to meet a round face, a bobbing curl that she’d always said looked absolutely ridiculous._

_“Though I don’t think he ever meant it like that…”_

_Manny could only shake his head and avert his eyes._

_Seraphina pulled him closer. “I’m sorry… I know you lost your parents today too…” she sucks in a breath. “But you know what?”_

_Manny looks at his friend curiously._

_“We won’t ever have to feel this pain again!” Sera cries, seeming unhinged as she laughs. “You can only lose your parents once right? We’ll never be able to lose them again!” Tears poor freely from her eyes as she laughs, before collapsing back into her friend._

_“I’ll never, let anyone in. Only you, Manny.” She whispers wetly. A promise._

|

|

|

Aster Bunnymund closes the curtains of his egg theater, letting the little egg actors (which were simply egg warriors in costumes) to hop out of the little box and take a bow and steps into view, addressing the children of Santoff Clausen with hands clasped tight behind his back.

“And that, children, is the story of the girl in the locket.” His whiskers twitch curiously as the youngest William squirms impatiently.

“But what happened to Seraphina after!?” He cried, “Did she die?” The other children echoed his sentiment worriedly.

A sly grin falls onto the ancient pooka’s face, and he tilts his head towards the horizon.  “No, I don’t think she did… though for the first few hundred years she surely wanted to.” He starts, unafraid of broaching such delicate subjects with his eager audience.  “I feel she simply isolated herself so well that time forgot her – not to dissimilar to what I myself did.”

There was a collective sigh of relief from the group of children.

“But,” Bunnymund continued, “As I discovered, there isn’t much that can be hidden from you curious kits once you’ve set your mind to something. I feel it won’t be long before you lot will make her acquaintance.” Bunnymund stomped his foot three times, opening the dreaded tunnel back to Santoff Clausen. “Now, it’s you all get to bed.”

Dutifully ignoring the protests of his impromptu brood, he sends them off one at a time, each with a pat on the head and wrapped chocolate for them to try once they got home.

He didn’t miss the willowy shadow retreating over the hill, nor did he neglect to catch the scent of fresh blossoms drifting towards him on a clean spring breeze.

‘Yes.’ He thinks. ‘It shan’t be long at all…”

And with that, he retreats back into his warren, head buzzing with a million possibilities and heart aching with memories of a time long past.

 


End file.
